Homa Fire rituaL Buddhist tradition Vedic fateful, 'tantric'

ation rites and the diksa ceremony' (Locke 1980: 103). Homa is performed now as it was in the past, but,
on these and other occasions, it is always a specialized Buddhist priest now, a vajracarya, who performs
it. In fact, contrary to the current opinion, wrong to my eyes, which is inclined to emphasize those
aspects Buddhism and Hinduism have in common (that indeed do exist)', 7 A careful examination of the
rites' forming the ceremony as shown in the iconographies along with a patient control of the textual and
ethnographical variants (which lies beyond the scope of this article) might produce valuable results . •
Although represented 'dans Ie plus somrnaire des decors' (Foucher 1949: 63), the episode is much more
common than episodes we deem of primary importance in Siddhiirtha's life, such as for example the Four
Encounters. • This opinion is shared by Staal (for example 1985: 25, 40). But - to take a much less radical
example - Catholicism and the various Protestant movements, besides a common basis, have quite a long
history in common, and this does not mean that they have not been, and are not, in conflict. We can
even say that when the differences within the Church became a real fracture, not ouly conflictual
positions arose, but alternative systems. 6 G. Verardi the perception of them as separate entities was so
sharp in late ancient and medieval India that northern Buddhism had to change itself into a system where
all aspects of social life were confronted by relying on its own energies alone and, with reference .to
rituals, had to resort to specialized figures of its own instead of depending on external priests as, in the
case of Siddhiirtha's marriage, purohitas would be. This is why Strickmann (1983: 425) notices in Tantric
Buddhism' 'a near-obses~ive inclusiveness'. Homa and Other Fire Rituals ... 7 3. VEDIC AND BUDDHIST
FIRES The haviryajiias, or the oblations of milk, butter, rice seeds, wheat, barley, etc., had contributed no
less than the other rituals of the srauta class to the formation of that ritualistic network to which the
sramalJ-as were opposed. Minutely described and regulated in the first two kUlJ-4as of the Satapatha
BrahmmJa, they were the basis of many acts of the private and social life. In a reality where magical
practices admittedly were extraordinarily numerous and various (see Gonda 1981: 159 ff.), the magical
dimension of the rites, and of the oblations to the fire themselves, is, in Vedic texts, quite explicit. The
man who habitually performed homa in his house kept at bay serious and less serious diseases: pustules
upon the neck, the shoulder-joints and the abdomen, comsumption 'that breaks the ribs, that settles in
the lungs', venereal diseases, and more (Atharva Veda VIT, 7; cf. Chand 1982: 317-8). The agnihotra itself,
founding the identity of the upper castes, and such as being performed by any householder (and not by a
priest) provided that he was properly initiated (Panikkar 1977: 31), assured wordly benefits. The types of
fire rituals performed by laymen are those we are concerned most with here, the ones whose invariance
beyond religious boundaries is more evident. However, we know that important sectors of ancient Indian
society represented by those sramalJ-as whose contrast with the brahmalJ-as is at the basis of its
bipolarity, reacted to the ritualistic prescriptivness and to the abuse of magical practices. The Atharva
Veda itself (XVIII, 2, 35; cf. Chand 1982: 692) reports that there are some among the samnyasis 'who have
renounced the performance of homa and kindle only the fire of knowledge'. By the forest ascetics of
brahrnanic and k~atriya caste to which the AralJ-yakas pertain, the efficacy of inner or mental sacrifice is
emphasized in relation to the outer and formal sacrifice. In the Aitareya AralJ-yaka (see Keith 1909) the
internal agnihotra is described in detail as a substitute for the formal sacrifice. Buddhism, which takes
shape as a community of ascetics (aryasmigha) radically opposing the brahrnanic authority (and thus the
sacrifices monopolized . by them), moves in the same direction. This does not mean, however, the
disappearance sic et simpliciter of all the rituals from that segment of social life controlled by the
Buddhists. It is true that the fire ritual appeared as the most perceptible discriminant between orthodox
ascetics and the aryasangha, and that is why the jatilas followers of Kasyapa at Uruvilva, on the point of
their conversion to Buddhism threw the things for the agnihotra into the river (see Mahavagga I, 20, 19;
cf. Rhys Davids and Oldenberg 1885, 1: 132). In principle, and to a great extent in fact, the sharp
theoretical distinction 8 G. Verardi between outer and inner sacrifice was accompanied in accordance
with a procedure that is typical of all religious reform - by the rejection of the former in the name of the
'true', 'more authentic' meaning of the rituaL On the other hand there is plenty of evidence that the
outer sacrifice was preserved in the Buddhist tradition as well. It is usually believed that certain rituals
whose structure is clearly similar to that of Vedic rituals, and notably homa, 're-emerged' in northern
medieval Buddhism for a sort of fateful, 'tantric' contamination with the Indian 'substratum' (suddenly
important) and with Hinduism, but this view is to be rejected. As we will see in section 13, medieval
Buddhism has, instead, a tendency to reassert firmly the inner dimension of the ritual, remaining faithful
- no matter what is commonly believed - to that interpretive line that had been typical of the world of the
Upani$ads and the AralJyakas, a world to which Buddhism is genetically connected. The reasons for the
survival and the adjustment of some of the fire rituals in Buddhism were its success itself (which implied
the expansion of its social basis) and the need to preserve instruments of social regulation to face a
brahmanic system on the way of reorganizing itself. The harsh quarrel among Brahmans about the
preservation of Vedic norms and rituals did not prevent the innovators who supported bhakti to create a
new ritualistic network centred, precisely, on images and places of worship (see Stietencron 1977;
Verardi 1992: 12-3, 25-6), but this in tum did not mean the end of Vedic rituals. They both went to form
what we call 'Hinduism'. This was a serious challenge to Buddhism. Concerning the first point, whether
one considers the social rooting of Buddhi.sm as a revolution 'from below' or as a consequence of a split
within the elite of the Brahmans and the k$atriyas, as I am inclined to believe, the break with the whole
of the tradition could not be as sharp as it most probably was within the iiryasaligha: it was certainly
more difficult in the saf[lvrtisaligha, although this did not spread beyond the most faithful laity, and was
altogether impossible within the common laity (n6t to speak of the lower segments of society).
Strickrnann (1983: 427) has drawn attention to the fact that in the Samyuktagama three fires of srauta
ritual are spared from blame and appear as having been assimilated into the Buddhist tradition: the
iihavanIya, which was identified with one own's parents, the garhapatya, meant for the other relatives,
and the dak$ina, identified with the Brahmans and the recluses; and we will actually see how early in
Buddhism is the speculation on fires (sections 5, 11). The attitude of Buddhism towards the fire
worshippers is actually a rather ambiguous one. It is true that, as we have just said, the jafilas threw the
agnihotra things into the fire when they joined the Buddha, but it is also true that the probation period
imposed upon novices was not required in the case of former fire worshippers (see Mahavagga 1, 38, 11;
cf. Rhys Davids and Oldenberg 1885, I: 190-1); the concern of Buddhism to convert the brahrnanic elite is
evident. As to the second point, one has to consider how, while we are in the position to follow the
transition from Vedic ritualism to neo-brahmanic ritualism through the texts of the vidhiina literature,
radically simplifying the rituals Homa and Other Fire Rituals ... 9 (including fire rituals) 10, the re-asserted
vitality of the grhasutras, and the iigama literature at its start - besides, naturally, through the
observation of the living tradition which still today sets us before the dialectics Vedic ritualslHindu rituals
- for Indian Buddhism we are facing the disappearance of all early ritual texts and ancient ritualistic
traditions, of all early 'magic' texts, and of the whole living religious practice. . 10 The declared aim of the
vidhiina texts was to simplify 'the complicated and burdensome ceremonies treated in the Srauta and
Grhya Sutras ... with the help of magic' (see Bhat 1987: 3). We will recall in section 10 the earliest of
these texts, the !J.gvidhiina, which 'describes the magical effects produced by the recitations of hymns of
the !J.gveda' (ib.). 10 G. Verardi 4. DHARAljlS AND MANTRAS: SAKYAMUNI, MAITREYA AND THE
MAHAYANA BODHISATIVAS If we consider Xuanzang too late a source, and perhaps even a biased one, we
shall give no importance to that piece of information accordiIlg to which the Mahiisanghikas, after the
death of the Blessed One, had also established a DhiiraT)i-pitaka (see Kern 1898: 6; Lamotte 1958: 313),
and no use will be made of it 11: this is what has actually happened, but one should not ignore that
translations of dhiiraT}i-sutras and anthologies of dh,iiraT}is and mantras did spread in the Far East from
the third century A.D. onward (see Strickmann 1983: 424). Even according to the Piili tradition, however,
we know that in ancient times 'drawing amulets, something like yantra' did already exist (see Gombrich
1990: 28) along with protective spells, actual dhiiraT}is. According to Gombrich (ib.: n. 31), 'what is
forbidden in general is magic, but specific kinds of white magic are permitted'. I am quoting Gombrich
because he is a student of Theraviida Buddhism whose positions are not too distant from the modernist
ones 12, but it should be recalled that Bharati (1977: 8-7), to the eyes of some not a respectable author
1" had already observed that various Piili texts mention parittas or protective mantras that were meant
to avoid every sort of danger (diseases, snake bites, evil spirits) and to obtain, besides a happy rebirth,
peace and wealth. A passage of the Milindapafiha is particulaly interesting, as it is from an uncanonical
text (these are of the utmost importance to understanding Gandhiiran art, or rather would have been if
they had survived). Rohana refuses to impart the mantra to young Niigasenaunless he leaves his home:
the boy can be taught that 'supreme mantra of thewodd (see Fal1l. 1982: 31) 14 only through an
initiation which must take place in the forest hermitage. Thus Niigasena, who will teach Milinda the
Buddha's doctrine, is considered to belong to a guruparamparii. II I must say that concerning this A.
Foucher (1905-51, II: 790) noticed, out of any 'philological' scheme, that 'Ie quatrieme pitaka [i.e. the
Dhiirat].i-pitakal n'est la plus recente des "corbeilles" que dans Ie sens ou l'Atharva-Vlda est Ie plus jeune
des quatre vedas'. " See Staal's opinion on Gombrich apropos of a quere11e between the latter and S.l.
Tambiah (Staal 1986: 192). R. Gombrich might be defined here as 'philological', and innovative, at the
price of some mistakes, Tambiah. " H.P. Alper, editor of and contributor to an important book on mantras
(Alper 1989), unfortunately for us mostly devoted to Vedic and Hindu traditions, and not to Buddhist,
acknowledged in Bharati's book (1971) - in spite of its flaws - 'a model for its clear textual, philosophical,
and sociological method' (Alper 1989: 193) . .. Rbys Davids (1890, I: 19) translated 'mantra' as 'hymn': an
unlikely translation here and indeed a good example of modernist view. Homa and Other Fire Rituals ...
11 Gandharan iconographies of the Bodhisattvas, and especially Maitreya's, show how the use of scrolls
with passages of specialized sutras, or real dharalJfs or dharal;l-mantras, was popular in north-western
Buddhism. The cases (kavacas) that Maitreya bears threaded in the cords he wears cannot otherwise be
explained (figs.13-14, 22), and Foucher (1905-51, II: 182) noticed this. There are different ways to put
oneself in relation with Maitreya, and these have been formalized by I. Nattier (1988), who sees four 15.
If in the 'here/later' type, by far the most common in the canonical literature (Nattier 1988: 26), 'the
patient accumulation of the moral and spiritual prerequisitions that will eventually lead to being reborn
at the time of Maitreya's appearance on Earth is not disjointed from 'the veneration of texts dealing with
Maitreya' (ib.: 27-28), it is the 'there/now' and 'here/now' type that we are more concerned with. In the
'there/now' type, the believer, through vision, encounters now Maitreya in the Tu~ita Heaven, i.e. there:
the encounter is made possible by the practice of samadhi, which, however, as Nattier has noted, is
restricted to the 'professional' religious (ib.: 30). Ordinary laymen succeed in ascending to the Tu~ita
Heaven thanks to rituals. Once there, they may be bestowed protective or magic formulas that Maitreya
is endowed with. Yet, in Gandharan iconographies, it is not so usual a feature of Maitreya seated in
meditation or with his right hand raised in. abhayamudra to welcome the faithful by bearing the kavacas.
Instead, he almost always bears them when he is represented $tanding and in abhayamudra (fig. 22). This
iconography may be considered to belong to Maitreya descending from Heaven to Earth 16, bestowing
upon the believer a number of gifts induding dharalJ.ls and mantras. Here, I believe, we are within
Nattier's 'here/now' type, although possibly not within a frame of political and millenaristic movements,
as the observed examples are (ib.: 30-2). The encounter with Maitreya must be considered, in any case,
as having a concrete meaning, and cannot be understood in merely ethical-religious terms, or, as it
happens, in moralistic terms: the laymen yearn for it and try to make it possible not only and not as much
for spiritual ends, but in order to achieve wordly ends. It is precisely to this purpose that the encounter
can be artfully caused by means of magic rituals. It may be appropriate to recall that esoteric traditions
bound to the cult of " I) Here/now: the believer expects to meet Maitreya on earth, during his present
life; 2) Here/later: the believer expects to meet Maitreya on earth in a future rebirth; 3) There/now: the
believer strives for an immediate encounter with Maitreya, who sits in the Tu~ita Heaven; 4) Therellater:
the believer aspires to be reborn in the Tu~ita Heaven. " The question of Maitreya's descending activity,
to which Nattier (1988: 29) briefly alludes, should be discussed here. But it is not possible, but for an
observation in note 18, below, to address such a complex matter, to which I hope to return on a future
occasion. I have outlined in the past the question of the descending aspect of the Bodhisattvas with
special reference to Mathura iconographies. The necessary corrections to that work would not